Web site creates marketplace for free-lancers

Executives from free-lance job firm eLance say they want to put an East Coast spin on the online job hunting market.

eLance, which lets free-lancers bid on
jobs posted by potential employers, is set up similarly to a trading floor, with eLance employees stepping in to facilitate trades, make sure they are
completed, and stimulate demand or supply as needed to ensure liquidity of
the market.

Srini Anumolu, who before founding eLance was a portfolio manager trading
bonds on Wall Street, and his partner, fellow Wall Street graduate and
"chief eLancer" Beerud Sheth, are after more than atmosphere with their
model for job hunting.

"We wanted to recreate the kind of excitement you find on a trading floor,"
Anumolu said. "When I first walked into the Salomon Bros. trading desk,
there were hundreds of people sitting row after row on the phone, with
clocks on the wall giving the time in cities around the world, and ticker
tapes giving the latest quotes.

"You could feel the energy coming into the room. So we didn't want an
office of standard cubicles," he said.

eLance has attracted attention this week as the entire company moves from
its cramped office in a New Jersey one-bedroom apartment to a 20,000 square
foot warehouse space in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The company made the move to be closer to tech talent; it plans to boost
its staff from 20 to 70 in the next three months.

In addition to entering a valley swarming with workers, eLance is entering
a market crowded with competition.

Other sites that connect free-lance workers with employers include
FlexMind.com, Monster.com and FreeAgent.com. Guru.com offers free-lancers
job-matching, products, services and content. The company today said it had
nailed down $16 million in its second round of financing, led by Greylock
and August Capital.

When traffic picks up for eLance, the site plans to monitor the going rate
for services, letting users know, for example, that Java programming is
selling for $100 per hour.

"It will be a while before we get enough traffic to do that," said Anumolu.

Once traffic does grow, it will bring its own set of challenges. In its
early stages, eLance can monitor and close deals on an individual basis.
But if the site grows as fast and as big as it hopes, it may lose that
personal touch.

"I don't know how much we can scale," Anumolu said. "If it becomes an eBay,
that's going to be an issue."

Anumolu said his engineers are at work on systems that will automate some
of the so-called market-making tasks, such as making sure job descriptions are
detailed, user profiles are complete, and job market demands are
met.